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Promoting Sociological Research: A Toolkit Compiled by the American Sociological Association’s Task Force on Social Media Promoting Sociological Research: A Toolkit Compiled by the American Sociological Association’s Task Force on Social Media Edited by Matt Wray, Jessie Daniels, & Tina Fetner American Sociological Association Published under Creative Commons license (by attribution, non-commercial, no derivatives) Suggested Citation: Wray, Matt, Jessie Daniels, Tina Fetner, eds., 2016. Promoting Sociological Research: A Toolkit. Washington, DC: American Sociological Association. Table of Contents Part I — Social Media and You: An Overview Page Why Should I Bother with Social Media, Anyway? Jessie Daniels …………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 5 Part II — Interviews with Engaged Public Sociologists The Sociological Cinema Website Lester Andrist …………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 10 Speaking to the Press Stephanie Coontz ..…………………………………………………………………………………………………. 14 The Society Pages Website Douglas Hartmann and Letta Wren Page ……….………………………………………………………. 20 Building Your Audience Through Social Media Dustin Kidd ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 27 Using Social Media to Promote Your Book Alondra Nelson ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 30 Sociology Source Website Nathan Palmer ….……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 34 On-Camera Interviews CJ Pascoe ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 36 Sociological Images Website Lisa Wade …..…………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 43 Part III — Best Practices and Practical Advice 2 Four Authors on Promoting Your Book Part I: Annette Lareau .…………………………………………………………………………………………. 48 Part II: Abigail Saguy .……………………………………………………………………………………………. 52 Part III: Elizabeth Armstrong & Laura Hamilton .……………………………………………………. 54 Trade or Academic Press? Dalton Conley ...……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 58 From Tweet to Blog Post to Peer-Reviewed Article Jessie Daniels ....……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 61 Using Facebook to Promote Your Research Roberto Gonzalez …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 64 Podcasting Heidi Knoblauch ..…………………………………………………………………………………………………. 67 Promoting Your Research with Social Media Arielle Kuperberg …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 69 Writing Op-Eds Tressie McMillan Cottom………………………………………………………………………………………. 75 Using RSS Michael Miller …...…………………………………………………………………………………………………. 77 Using Twitter Tyson Smith ……...…………………………………………………………………………………………………. 80 Sociology on the Radio Matt Wray ………..…………………………………………………………………………………………………. 85 Part IV — Dealing with Public Attacks Supporting Scholars Who Come Under Attack Eric Anthony Grollman .….……………………………………………………………………………………. 89 Who Do You Think You Are? When Marginality Meets Micro-celebrity Tressie McMillan Cottom ….…………………………………………………………………………………. 100 Acknowledgements .….……………………………………………………………………………………. 115 3 Part I: Social Media and You: An Overview 4 Why Should I Bother with Social Media, Anyway? Jessie Daniels, Hunter College The shortest, simplest answer to the question “why should I bother?” is “You don’t have to.” Really, you don’t have to be on television if CNN calls. You don’t need a Twitter account. But, there are some reasons you might want to do these things. Here are just a few. Using social media can facilitate: 1. Establishing yourself as an expert 2. Conceptualizing and developing ideas 3. Developing a reputation for your thoughts, ideas and interactions 4. Building relationships 1. Establishing Your Expertise Few argue that social media engagement as currently used, measured and regarded can replace traditional methods of developing subject-matter expertise. However, providing expert context for discussions in the public domain can establish a broader profile for individual academics and the profession. Using blogs to discuss your research can also help establish you as an expert. One plus is the turnaround time for writing a blog is so much faster than for traditional publications that we can respond to events in the news more quickly, making sociology seem more relevant. Blogs like Huffington Post (with 1.8 million “likes”) can also be useful for sociologists to get the word out about their own work and to discuss past and current events that may be germane to those in their area. For example, the recent stories about racial profiling, Florida’s stand your ground and the Michael Dunn shooting of a black teenager can serve as a vehicle for discussion among others in their areas or to those with an interest in this issue. Sociologists can maintain a blog that documents their experiences at their respective career stages and include tips and suggestions for folks. In this way, they simultaneously share their work, their experience in the academic labor process, and offer tips and suggestions (that they did try or wish they had tried). I find this especially useful as sometimes our particular departments are less experienced with particular topics or journals that other folks are and hearing from them creates a large virtual community that one is able to tap into. 2. Conceptualizing and Developing Ideas Writing (and especially pre-writing) for academic audiences is often an extended affair. Conference presentations and networking is a traditional method of soliciting valuable feedback as we develop concepts and ideas. Working through concepts through social media is another way to refine one’s thinking. Additionally, many academics find that distilling their thinking through forced platform constraints (140 characters or a blog post) clarifies their scholarly writing. As more academics and subject matter experts use 5 social media, peer groups tend to develop organically. These networks of strong and weak ties provide deeper, broader audiences for feedback and divergent thinking. 3. Developing a Reputation Developing a professional reputation is closely aligned with developing expertise. However, the audiences/publics may differ in meaningful ways. Scholars from various sub-disciplines report media, lecture, and consulting opportunities as a benefit of establishing expertise in the public domain. Twitter contains a wealth of resources for academics. The word limit on Twitter would compel academics to think through their “tweets” before “tweeting.” The ability to interact with a large community of scholars (in various stages of their career) is particularly useful for sociologists. Their ongoing conversation covers a range of topics that are frequently interjected with relevant citations and references. In addition, Twitter has the capacity to convene an interdisciplinary discussion surrounding a particular topic. Importantly, the topics are not limited to scholars and frequently engage activists, community leaders, and organizations into the conversation. One quick example is the Michael Dunn Trial, which became “#dunntrial” on Twitter – in this way anyone who desired to be included in the conversation simply included the respective hashtag (#dunntrial) in their “tweet” or message. This conversation covered a range of subtopics that included race, gender, class, etc. can also be useful for others such as history, economics, and the legal apparatus in general. In a similar way, conferences are “live tweeted” with a particular hashtag and scholars unable to attend said conferences are still able to follow interesting conversations and panels. This is quite interesting. One recent example is the “live tweeting” of the American Studies Association’s debate–and ultimately, affirmative decision to join the– boycott, divests, and sanctions (BDS) movement against settler projects on Palestinian land. Finally, sociologists–and social scientists in general–have the opportunity to utilize Twitter in conjunction with other platforms to narrate stories or record responses to stories. Here, I am thinking about Storify, an app that helps users compile a set of tweets that function to tell a story or assist in compiling evidence of what particular people said about a particular topic. Many times, rather than abstract storytelling, Storify is used to reconstruct a particular event (usually a controversial one) so that a person can carefully analyze how the event unfolded and the (potential) implications. Still other times, this can be used to “freeze” a particular conversation “in time” and archive it for later reference. Twitter is a particularly useful tool to advance through various stages of the academic labor process, but also as a resource to tap into a larger community of interdisciplinary scholars who offer critical feedback and lead to collaborations that might otherwise be difficult to achieve. It definitely should not be used to replace traditional avenues of mentorship and collegiality in academic departments, but instead as a complementary avenue. For sociologists in general, Twitter offers the opportunity to engage as scholars with a community but also, Twitter offers itself as a site for inquiry and investigation. For 6 me, the potential for academic scholars–particularly those interested in social justice and activism–is too great to minimize and much less to ignore. 4. Building Relationships Social media creates opportunities for networking, community building and collaboration. Not only can these connections generate publications and further thinking, but it can also create safe spaces for peer support. It is possible to have an account with Twitter that is used solely for networking and public sociology efforts. The followers can be all fellow academics,